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Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Oct 2023Perhaps it is no accident that insight moments accompany some of humanity's most important discoveries in science, medicine, and art. Here we propose that feelings of... (Review)
Review
Perhaps it is no accident that insight moments accompany some of humanity's most important discoveries in science, medicine, and art. Here we propose that feelings of insight play a central role in (heuristically) selecting an idea from the stream of consciousness by capturing attention and eliciting a sense of intuitive confidence permitting fast action under uncertainty. The mechanisms underlying this Eureka heuristic are explained within an active inference framework. First, implicit restructuring via Bayesian reduction leads to a higher-order prediction error (i.e., the content of insight). Second, dopaminergic precision-weighting of the prediction error accounts for the intuitive confidence, pleasure, and attentional capture (i.e., the feeling of insight). This insight as precision account is consistent with the phenomenology, accuracy, and neural unfolding of insight, as well as its effects on belief and decision-making. We conclude by reflecting on dangers of the Eureka Heuristic, including the arising and entrenchment of false beliefs and the vulnerability of insights under psychoactive substances and misinformation.
Topics: Humans; Bayes Theorem; Heuristics; Uncertainty; Emotions; Mental Processes
PubMed: 37598874
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105363 -
Cancers Dec 2023Writing this editorial is more than a great pleasure and honor for me because since its first appearance in 2009, Cancers has become one of the most acknowledged...
Writing this editorial is more than a great pleasure and honor for me because since its first appearance in 2009, Cancers has become one of the most acknowledged journals among scientists and cancer surgeons [...].
PubMed: 38201573
DOI: 10.3390/cancers16010146 -
EClinicalMedicine Dec 2023Prior studies on the relationship between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and physical activity (PA) mainly relied on subjective PA data and rarely considered the genetic...
Association between questionnaire-based and accelerometer-based physical activity and the incidence of chronic kidney disease using data from UK Biobank: a prospective cohort study.
BACKGROUND
Prior studies on the relationship between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and physical activity (PA) mainly relied on subjective PA data and rarely considered the genetic risk. This study aims to thoroughly investigate this relationship by utilizing both accelerometer-measured and questionnaire-measured PA data.
METHODS
This prospective cohort study encompasses two cohorts from the UK Biobank. The questionnaire-based cohort involves 448,444 CKD-free participants who completed an International Physical Activity Questionnaire between 2006 and 2010 and had genetic data. PA was categorized into distinct activities: leisure, housework, job-related, and transportation. The accelerometer-based cohort involves 89,296 CKD-free participants who provided a full week of accelerometer-based physical activity data between 2013 and 2015 and had genetic data. PA was classified as light-intensity, moderate-intensity, vigorous-intensity, moderate to vigorous-intensity PA (LPA, MPA, VPA, MVPA), and total PA. Incident CKD was ascertained from linked hospital inpatient and death records. Genetic risk was assessed using polygenic risk scores. Cox proportional hazard models with restricted cubic splines were used for the analysis.
FINDINGS
In the questionnaire-based cohort, 18,184 (4.05%) participants developed CKD during 13.6 years of follow-up. Engaging in strenuous sports, other exercises, walking for pleasure, stair climbing, and heavy DIY were associated with a reduced risk of CKD. In the accelerometer-based cohort, 2297 (2.57%) participants developed CKD during 7.9 years of follow-up. Higher levels [highest quartile vs lowest quartile] of MPA (HR 0.639, 95% CI 0.554-0.737), VPA (HR 0.639, 95% CI 0.549-0.745), MVPA (HR 0.630, 95% CI 0.545-0.729), and total PA (HR 0.649, 95% CI 0.563-0.750) were associated with a lower CKD risk. There were significant interactions between MPA and genetic risk on the risk of CKD incidence (P for interaction = 0.025). A linear dose-response relationship was observed between MPA, total PA, and the risk of CKD incidence with no minimal or maximal threshold. These associations are robust in different subgroups and a series of sensitivity analyses.
INTERPRETATION
Engaging in multiple types of PA and higher levels of total PA, MPA, VPA, and MVPA may be associated with a lower risk of developing CKD, regardless of genetic risk. This finding holds substantial implications for clinical approaches to CKD prevention and provides evidence to inform future PA guideline development.
FUNDING
Medical Science Advancement Program of Wuhan University, and the National Science Foundation of China.
PubMed: 38024479
DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102323 -
Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2023It has been my great pleasure to have joined forces with editorial team in order to organize and publish a Special Issue on "Lung Injury and Repair" [...].
It has been my great pleasure to have joined forces with editorial team in order to organize and publish a Special Issue on "Lung Injury and Repair" [...].
PubMed: 37765063
DOI: 10.3390/ph16091255 -
Alcohol and Alcoholism (Oxford,... Sep 2023To suggest a new paradigm for addictions.
AIM
To suggest a new paradigm for addictions.
METHODS
Consideration of relevant research findings and thought experiments.
RESULTS
Common mental motors leading to addictions are pleasure-seeking and hyperbolic discounting. The important point of the latter is that given two choices of future rewards, commonly one initially prefers the larger one available after a longer waiting time but despite this the smaller and sooner reward will be chosen when it becomes available. These are general biological properties, found at least in human beings, the rat, and the pigeon. If this continues it may create an unconscious habit, difficult to change. Several other risk factors for addictions are known, notably both externalizing and internalizing mental problems. Predisposing factors are likely to interact.
CONCLUSIONS
The above suggests a new paradigm for addictions. Pleasure provides temptations, hyperbolic discounting weakens the will. Habits emerge. Addictions seem to be a group of problems of its own kind, not diseases, because diseases do not bring about pleasure, and are not sought for pleasure.
Topics: Humans; Animals; Rats; Reward; Behavior, Addictive; Motivation; Pleasure; Risk Factors
PubMed: 37092272
DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agad027 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Oct 2023As the Section Editor-in-Chief, it is my pleasure to introduce the new section of devoted to pediatric endocrinology [...].
As the Section Editor-in-Chief, it is my pleasure to introduce the new section of devoted to pediatric endocrinology [...].
PubMed: 38002847
DOI: 10.3390/children10111757 -
Dermatopathology (Basel, Switzerland) Mar 2024As the Editor-in-Chief of and the President of the European Society of Dermatopathology (ESDP), I have the great pleasure of celebrating the 10th anniversary of , the...
As the Editor-in-Chief of and the President of the European Society of Dermatopathology (ESDP), I have the great pleasure of celebrating the 10th anniversary of , the only online journal in the field of cutaneous pathology and the official journal of the ESDP [...].
PubMed: 38534265
DOI: 10.3390/dermatopathology11010012